Category Archives: God’s plans for us

The Tough Truth

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Tiger golfsSome babies are born into sporty families and begin their careers with pint-sized golf clubs, tennis rackets, or baseball bats. Others arrive to parents who love horses, and their children are taught to ride before they can sit up. Still others come into musical homes and learn to read music before reading words, developing into prodigies.

Babies born into our family have it easy. All they have to do is love the beach.

Later this week Emerald will turn 9 months, and in her short life she’s already become a water baby. She never gets enough of Lake Michigan and today had us all spellbound with her antics.

Water baby.

While she was sitting in our beach creek, her mommy slowly poured a bucket of water out in front of her from 2 feet in the air. At first Emerald did what most babies do, grabbing at the stream. Then suddenly she surprised us all by leaning forward and going full-face into the water, soaking her eyes and nose, and filling her mouth.

She did it again and again, after which she would pull back and laugh with gusto. Birgitta poured bucket after bucket in front of her, and she never stopped ducking into the water and laughing afterwards. Getting dunked was her her passion of the moment.

Maybe it’s possible to develop spiritual passions in our children the same way families develop passions for sports, horses, music, or water, by starting young.

My parents began spiritual training with my sister, brother and I early in our lives, just as Nate and I did with our children: Sunday school from infancy, youth groups, summer camp, service projects, and mission trips. Most importantly, we tried to practice what we preached at home. But that last one, living out an example of Christ-like-ness, is the toughest.

Some youngsters, when taught something from the get-go, develop a natural proclivity for it and get good at it because it comes naturally. But righteous living? That doesn’t come naturally to any of us.

Billy Graham

I think of Billy Graham, one of the most prominent preachers of all time. His life has been scrutinized from every angle  without finding any skeletons in his closets, and most of us would call him a “righteous person.” Yet he told an interviewer he struggles daily with the temptation to sin, resisting only with God’s supernatural help.

Those of us who think we have a passion to follow God will never succeed at it unless we enlist his ongoing partnership. We can start early with our training, practice like Olympic athletes, and insist our passion will carry us, but all of us are (as one God-fearing missionary put it) “…only two steps away from disaster.”

Good thing God understands that. Although he appreciates our efforts toward righteousness (and expects us to try), he lets us off the hook on perfection. And we can be forever grateful for his reason:

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15)

God’s Good Will

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Dropping offOne of 6 stops on my errand list today was the local Goodwill store, not to shop, but to drop off. Usually a heap of guilt accompanies this process: (1) I shouldn’t buy so much; (2) the things I buy ought to be better used; (3) giving away partially used items might insult those taking them in; (4) I have too much, while others have too little.

What is the right way to decide what we do or don’t need?

Sinai DesertI love the scriptural description of God’s care for the Israelites as they wandered back and forth in harsh desert conditions for 40 years. Being the practical God he was, he knew they wouldn’t come across any markets during those years and wouldn’t have a way to find water, food, or shelter. So he provided everything they needed, even clothes.

sandals

For example, at the end of their journey, he pointed out that their clothes hadn’t aged in 4 decades. It wasn’t just good luck, he told them. It was his direct doing. And he had an important reason for preventing even one sandal strap from breaking. As he put it, “…so that you might know that I am the Lord your God.”  He wanted them to recognize him in action, to realize he was sustaining them personally through those difficult years. (Deuteronomy 29:6)

The Lord is still doing this kind of thing, not necessarily by way of miracle-clothes or super-sandals but by continuing to meet our needs. And that’s the key word: needs. He inspects our lives, each of us, and makes a divine analysis of what those are and then meets them.

In Philippians 4 Paul says, “My God shall supply all you need.” The obvious conclusion is that if we don’t have it, we didn’t need it. I remember my children asking for things unendingly and telling them, “But you don’t need that.”

Their responses were always the same: “But I waaaant it!”

We must sound much like wailing children to God when we complain about not having everything we want, especially if we point to someone else and say, “But why can she have it and I can’t?” He has his reasons.

He could have clothed the Israelites in new outfits that fell from heaven just like the manna and quails he sent exactly that way. Instead he let them make do with what they already had, causing each item to remain new-like instead, not as fun as new wardrobes but definitely a need met.

When we look for God’s near-presence in our lives, it’s best to remove our preconceived ideas of what he should be doing for us and let him decide what we need and how to provide it.

Goodwill store

Maybe he’ll even do it by directing us to purchase some gently-used clothing from a local Goodwill store.

“The Lord says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.” (Deuteronomy 29:5)

Healing Powers

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When I was growing up in the ‘40’s and ‘50’s, my friends occasionally disappeared from school for 2 weeks at a time, and sometimes I did, too. That’s because we all had to suffer through the debilitating diseases of mumps, measles (several kinds), chicken pox, flu, and several others.

These days children are blessed with vaccines. They can breeze through childhood skipping almost everything except the common cold. Well, that and a few other things.

Fever...

Today Birgitta and Louisa brought home two amoxicillin prescriptions after slogging through 3 days of 102 fevers, razor-sharp sore throats, and nausea. I was certain they had strep throat, but with today’s lab reports, we learned they have a strep-lookalike called pharyngitis, an inflammation of the tube that connects the nasal passages, throat, and esophagus.

Sometimes, the doctor said, pharyngitis is a precursor to strep, and so she wrote the prescriptions. It’s my opinion these meds will perk them both up, and I hope they’ll feel better soon.

Scripture has a number of things to say about healing. In the Gospels we watch Jesus speak words of wellness over people that bring instant good health. How thrilling it would have been to be part of the crowd that witnessed this phenomenon first hand! If we’d have been there, we’d also have noticed Jesus connecting his healings with belief in God. He forgave their sin. Or taught of God’s character. Sometimes he challenged people to live righteously from then on. And he often made mention of their personal faith in him.

Broken heart

Jesus also talked of healing of another kind, the healing of broken hearts. As we move  close to him during times of sadness, he promises to mend us. And compared to physical healing, heart-healing is probably the more important one.

The Bible also says something else about healing. The wounds Christ suffered when he was tortured and put to death are somehow the cause of healing within us, healing from sin. Isaiah 53 says, “With his stripes we are healed.” Although we can’t fully comprehend  how this works, we take him at his word and accept that his crucifixion wounds are what will allow us to be healed (and sinless) throughout eternity.

Although Jesus can certainly affect physical healing in people today, we don’t see much of it in our country. Maybe that’s because the more important bottom line is not how vigorous we feel in the here and now but how healthy our life after death is going to be. And whether we’re hale and hearty in this life or find ourselves battling illness, it’s eternal health that God wants us to focus on most.

Amoxicillin

Meanwhile, Louisa and Birgitta continue to swallow with difficulty and hope their antibiotics kick in soon. Though each had to pay a doctor’s bill today, their expenditures were miniscule compared to what Jesus paid to make sure they can have good health everlastingly.

“O Lord, if you heal me, I will be truly healed; if you save me, I will be truly saved.” (Jeremiah 17:14)